Job losses real and hidden mount up as Coalition pursues funding cuts

You can tell a lot about a government's priorities by what is kept and what is canned in a tight economic environment.

Among the federal government's latest cuts, as it grapples with a budget blowout of more than $17 billion in 2013-14, are staff for the opposition, Greens and crossbench MPs.

In 2010, Labor had approved its opposite numbers hiring 72 extra staff, at a cost of $54.2 million, to help them navigate legislation in a challenging minority-government environment.

But, with a comfortable election win under its belt, the Coalition will save $6 million in four years by cutting non-government staff to pre-2010 levels. Since taking office on September 7, the Coalition has cut billions of dollars in programs, including the $1.1 billion it will save by abandoning grants promised by the Labor government, announced in its mid-year economic statement.

Treasurer Joe Hockey's office could not provide a comprehensive list of the grants programs it has cut, and a spokeswoman said no estimates had been made of the jobs that would be lost due to grants cuts.

A spokesman for the Community and Public Sector Union says it's impossible to know how many jobs will be lost across the board, due to the ''conspicuous absence'' of hard data in the mid-year financial statement.

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The government came to power promising to cut 12,000 public service jobs through natural attrition, but Finance Minister Matthias Cormann said in November this was in doubt after the government discovered Labor ''hid'' job cuts of 14,500 in the next four years caused by the ALP's efficiency dividends.

But a Fairfax analysis of the savings announced in the mid-year economic statement shows hundreds of jobs and volunteer positions will be lost as the government grapples with a budget blowout of more than $17 billion in 2013-14 alone - on top of at least 12,000 public service jobs that will go in the next four years.

Some of them will be jobs in name only, having been announced by Labor and cut by the government before anyone had had a chance to fill them. These include ''live music ambassadors'' who were to head the new $560,000 National Office for Live Music announced by former prime minister Kevin Rudd during the election campaign, including Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, who also performs solo as Bob Evans (Victoria's ambassador), and Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner (NSW's ambassador).

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Also given the chop is the person who would have become the Independent Inspector-General of Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports, saving $3.9 million in four years.

But most of the job losses will be felt by real people.

The position of co-ordinator-general for remote indigenous services - now held by Brian Gleeson - will be axed when Mr Gleeson retires in January, saving $7.1 million in three years.

Also losing their jobs are an unknown number of Aboriginal legal aid policy workers, with $43 million stripped from policy reform and advocacy.

Members of the Advisory Panel on the Economic Portrayal of Senior Australians - Everald Compton, Professor Gill Lewin and Brian Howe - will also go, saving $958,000 in two years.

ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, who was appointed the chairman of the Old Parliament House advisory council, has handed in his resignation after the Coalition asked him to step down from the voluntary position. The government appointed former Howard government minister David Kemp in his place.

And 38 university graduates had accepted jobs in the prestigious AusAID graduate program only to be told it had been scrapped.

Other groups that have gone are the Climate Commission, now operating as the donor-funded Climate Council, and the Climate Change Authority. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation also faces an uncertain future.

The Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia went into administration after its funding was cut last month and the First Peoples Education Advisory Group, comprising indigenous academics and education experts, will also no longer receive funding.

A dozen non-statutory bodies, advising on everything from animal welfare to ageing, will be abolished and three more amalgamated with other non-statutory bodies, with five to be absorbed by portfolio departments.